Summary of The Dream of the Celt
“The Dream of the Celt” recounts the life of Sir Roger Casement, who was knighted by the British Crown for his humanitarian efforts, but during the First World War turned against the British, becoming a fighter for Irish independence. The novel focuses on three phases of Casement’s life: his denunciation of the atrocities against the people in the Congo Free State ruled by Belgian King Leopold II; his exposure of the genocidal treatment of people in Peru’s Putumayo region by a multinational rubber company; and his involvement in the Irish independence movement, including his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising, his naive and ill-fated collaboration with the Germans during the First World War, and his subsequent execution by the British for treason.
Reasons to read The Dream of the Celt
“The Dream of the Celt” is a compelling novel about Sir Roger Casement, a complex historical figure who was a pioneering advocate for human rights. He was honoured by the British for his efforts, but later supported his native Ireland’s fight for independence, for which he was executed by the British. Approximately one third of the novel focuses on the Irish struggle for independence, another third on the exploitation of the Congolese people, and the remainder on the oppression of people in the Peruvian Amazon. Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian author, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. Other notable novels by Vargas Llosa include “Conversations in the Cathedral”, “The War of the End of the World”, and “The Feast of the Goat”.
Location: Ireland, England, Congo, Peru
Book set in Ireland (various places, including Banna Strand in County Kerry); England (Pentonville Prison in London); Congo; Peru
Original title: El sueño del celta
Year of publication: 2010
Nr of pages: 512
